Monday, September 29, 2008

Aspiring Chef Dies Hours After Making Ultra-Hot Sauce for Chili-Eating Contest

OK - those who know me at all know I like hot stuff. The hotter the better, usually. But I am also quick to point out that I don't just like hot for the sake of hot. If there is no flavor to go along with it, I'm not interested.

Only 2 or 3 times in my life have I actually embarked on a hotter-than-hell epicurean experience and regretted it. Usually I just revel in the endorphin high that comes from eating hot stuff in much the same way a runner gets his or her endorphins going after a good run. Of course eating very spicy foods is not for the feint of heart, and one should always be prepared by putting a roll of toilet paper in the fridge over night.

And then there's this guy:

1C3B2E1E-B027-41C7-BBD9-E8A39592F288.jpg


In a feat worthy of a posthumous Darwin award, he gives his girlfriend's brother a spoonful (which would probably be enough to get most people to down a gallon of milk directly from a cow's utter if necessary). But no, this guy eats a plateful - a frickin' plateful - of his own homemade concoction that, just after tasting, caused him to say "Wow, that's hot."

Shortly after consuming the liquid fire, he starts to itch all over and then he dies in his sleep.

To be fair, it might not have been the hot sauce that caused his death, but it certainly couldn't have helped. To paraphrase the Mythbusters: I'm a professional. Do not try this at home. EVER!


Read the news story about his suicide by hot sauce here.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fun Quiz, but Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I found this little diversion via digg.com:

I could survive for 47 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia



Yes, that's right - it is apparently not enough that there is actually a site out there dedicated to everything you might want to know about bunk beds (and probably a lot you didn't). The site has a quiz that determines how long you could survive with a Velociraptor.

Speaking of useless minutiae, did you know "minutiae" is the plural of "minutia?" I didn't. I thought "minutia" was its own plural, like "data."

So each of the totally useless bits of information I gave you in this post are, by themselves, "minutia" (I think I am up to 5 or 6 at this point, depending on how you count), but together, they are "minutiae."

Who knew?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Watching Ike and Wasting Time Until The Power Goes Out Again

So we are getting caught up on some TV, and doing a little web surfing - all while paying more than passing attention to that thing called Ike out in the Gulf. The winds have kicked up here, and since Ike has gotten much bigger and come further north than anticipated, they are now forecasting Tropical Storm force winds for here in New Orleans overnight tonight and into tomorrow. The slow moving storm has been steadily pushing water towards Louisiana, and parts of New Orleans east are already flooded in areas near the Industrial Canal. Don't worry, though - the areas are not residential and are prone to flooding during storms.

Areas outside of the levee protection area could see storm surge as high as 9 feet. This will put a terrible toll on places such as Grand Isle and southern parts of Terrebone and Lafouche parishes, which were already hit hard by Hurricane Gustav last week (which had a storm surge of 12 feet, btw). Judging by what I have seen so far, it looks like we could get an inch or two of rain here (no big deal), and I estimate a 35% chance that power will go out sometime between 1AM Friday AM and 1AM Saturday AM. The winds should die down again once Ike moves far enough north. The kicker in all this is that it is entirely possible that Dallas experiences Category 1 Hurricane force windows on Saturday evening and Sunday. I don't know if that has ever happened before.

So how about that diversion? Here is something fun to do:

According to Wikipedia, a Meme is "consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus." Apparently, Richard Dawkins coined the term in his book The Selfish Game (1976). I'll let you follow the links to learn more about him and the origin of the word "meme."

I really have no idea how this is supposed to work, but "The Food Meme" has spread virally among many blogs out there. I can't see much value in it except that a). I was surprised at all the things I have tried (and how many things aren't on my "don't try" or "don't try again" lists); and b). that by publishing the list, I suppose you, my gentle readers (as Asminov would say), learns a bit more about me. So, without further ado, "The Food Meme," complete with instructions on how you can participate on your own, if you so choose.

The Food tasting meme

  1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
  2. Bold all the items you.ve eaten.
  3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again)
  4. Optional extra: Post a comment http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

To make the filling out of this form and generating the HTML for it a bit easier, someone named [info]reddywhp has played around with some PHP. Go to http://reddywhip.org/lj/foods/ and fill it out there. After filling it out, you will be given the code to copy and paste into your blog.

Livejournal users, remember to use your LJ-Cuts (whatever that means)!

  1. Venison
  2. Nettle tea
  3. Huevos rancheros
  4. Steak tartare
  5. Crocodile
  6. Black pudding
  7. Cheese fondue
  8. Carp
  9. Borscht
  10. Baba ghanoush
  11. Calamari
  12. Pho
  13. PB&J sandwich
  14. Aloo gobi
  15. Hot dog from a street cart
  16. Epoisses
  17. Black truffle
  18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
  19. Steamed pork buns
  20. Pistachio ice cream
  21. Heirloom tomatoes
  22. Fresh wild berries
  23. Foie gras
  24. Rice and beans
  25. Brawn, or head cheese
  26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
  27. Dulce de leche
  28. Oysters
  29. Baklava
  30. Bagna cauda
  31. Wasabi peas
  32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
  33. Salted lassi
  34. Sauerkraut
  35. Root beer float
  36. Cognac with a fat cigar
  37. Clotted cream tea
  38. Vodka jelly
  39. Gumbo
  40. Oxtail
  41. Curried goat
  42. Whole insects
  43. Phaal
  44. Goat's milk
  45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
  46. Fugu
  47. Chicken tikka masala
  48. Eel
  49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
  50. Sea urchin
  51. Prickly pear
  52. Umeboshi
  53. Abalone
  54. Paneer
  55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
  56. Spaetzle
  57. Dirty gin martini
  58. Beer above 8% ABV
  59. Poutine
  60. Carob chips
  61. S'mores
  62. Sweetbreads
  63. Kaolin
  64. Currywurst
  65. Durian
  66. Frog's Legs
  67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
  68. Haggis
  69. Fried plantain
  70. Chitterlings or andouillette
  71. Gazpacho
  72. Caviar and blini
  73. Louche absinthe
  74. Gjetost or brunost
  75. Roadkill
  76. Baijiu
  77. Hostess Fruit Pie
  78. Snail
  79. Lapsang souchong
  80. Bellini
  81. Tom yum
  82. Eggs Benedict
  83. Pocky
  84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
  85. Kobe beef
  86. Hare
  87. Goulash
  88. Flowers
  89. Horse
  90. Criollo chocolate
  91. Spam
  92. Soft shell crab
  93. Rose harissa
  94. Catfish
  95. Mole poblano
  96. Bagel and lox
  97. Lobster Thermidor
  98. Polenta
  99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
  100. Snake

Monday, September 8, 2008

Gustav Update #11 - Wrapping up with Random Thoughts

As life returns to normal here in the Big Easy, I thought I would share some observations about how the government handled Gustav.

First, every facet of government really had their act together this time. Evacuation, while not without its problems, was handled well. People got out, and the plan to evacuate people by planes, trains, and buses seemed to work. More importantly, those people were also brought back, instead of stranded in some far away city.

The streetcars start running again today, which - for us at least - is one of the biggest signs of normalcy in the city.

Entergy really came through as well. As of 10 PM last night, 99% of Orleans parish had power, and 73% of people in Louisiana who were without electricity due to Gustav had it again. This is an amazing achievement.

While many stores are open reduced hours, the problem this time seems to be that they are running out of stock, not so much for lack of employees. While many stores remain closed, it is not difficult to find groceries or gas at all.

The fact that the city and state allowed the Saints to play in the Superdome on Sunday is another sign of how quickly the city is recovering. Initially, it was thought they might play in Tampa instead, but Ike's original computer models suggested it might turn onto the west coast of Florida.

Driving through New Orleans, it is obvious the wind became stronger as you went from east to west, just from the amount of fallen limbs and debris piled up on the curbs. Even in the six miles or so from the French Quarter to the Jefferson Parish line, it was kind of amazing to see the difference in wind damage.

Given their experiences with Gustav, it is not surprising that many residents are saying they will not evacuate for the next one. I must admit - given our evacuation gridlock experience, I am more apt to ride out the next one and leave afterwards - when traffic is clear. I still worry about debris disabling our mini-van, and that is probably the only thing that would get me to leave for anything less than a Category 4 at this point.

Thank You Apple & AT&T


The iPhone turned out to be an invaluable tool both during the storm and upon our return. As a cell phone, it helped us find out what businesses were open before we wasted gas going there. As a handheld computer, it allowed us to check radar and visit news sites to keep up to date on what was happening back home while we were evacuated.

With local landline phone service down, it was important AT&T get their cell towers operational again in southern Louisiana as soon as possible. Apparently, this was done as soon as winds dropped below tropical storm strength. Even during the storm, we were able to text message back and forth with people who had stayed.

We Still Don't Like Ike


Governor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency as a prelude to Ike. Right now, the storm is on track to make landfall somewhere between Mobile and Houston, with the most likely spot being southwest Louisiana. This would definitely not be good for the coastal parishes, who were hardest hit from Gustav. (Some rural areas will not get power back until sometime in October.)

Declaring a state of emergency allows Louisiana to keep the National Guard troops and equipment on the ready to deploy as needed in response to another storm.

The projected track for Ike would have to take a considerable turn to the east in order to inspire me to evacuate again, but we are watching it very closely.

This will be the last Hurricane Gustav update. Hopefully, updates for Ike will be even fewer, or - if we are lucky - not necessary at all.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Gustav Update #10

We made it back in just over 7 hours, which is pretty close to normal for the trip from Dothan, AL to New Orleans that includes a stop for dinner. Everyone ate until they were uncomfortably full at Lambert's Cafe. I told Fay at dinner that Lambert's is one of the very few places I will actually eat until I am miserable, and revel in each and every sigh of discomfort afterwords.

There was a simply astounding police and National Guard presence when we arrived in New Orleans. We literally could not drive anywhere without seeing the flashing lights of an emergency vehicle of some kind. All of them were patrolling. Although there was still a dusk to dawn curfew in effect, police had instructions not to stop anyone unless they appeared to be loitering or up to no good. We were able to travel to Mikey & Juli's house, then to Adam & Jarret's house, then to Cary & Andrea's house, and finally to our house without incident.

From a distance, the city looked normal. The lights were all on in New Orleans East as we came from the Twin Spans on I-10 towards the middle of the city. The French Quarter and CBD (Central Business District) all had power. Ironically, everyone who travelled with us had electricity except for us. So we sweated ourselves to sleep last night with the windows open, listening to post-storm reports on WWL radio and the sound of a generator across the street.

This morning I walked around the house and found a few pieces of roofing and some wood that blew into our driveway. As with Katrina, the debris was not from our house. I unpacked the hard drives and other things I had packed to take with and started getting everything connected again in anticipation of the electricity coming on at some point. Officially, the local power company was reporting Orleans Parish would be 100% energized (powered up) no later than September 7th.

Since we had no electricity and very little food, we headed down to Coop's Place for lunch. Many of the regulars were already there, but since it was one of the few places already open, the place was packed with people looking to get fed.

Working with Murphy


I am sure you are familiar with Murphy's Law: [INSERT LAW]. Well, the best way to beat Murphy is to work with him. Anticipate his next move and act accordingly. Since all we knew about when the electricity was supposed to come back on was that it would be on no later than Sunday, we decided to take Glenn Cozzi up on his offer to use his generator. My theory is that the sooner I go to the trouble of getting a generator running, the sooner the electricity would come back on.

I am happy to report it worked. I fired up the generator and ran extension cords to power the refrigerator, a couple of fans, a light, and 1 computer. Within an hour, the electricity came back on. Ah, air conditioning, we missed you so.

No Internet Yet


We have electricity, phone service, cable TV - but no Internet. Right now, my iPhone is the only way I can get email, surf the web, or post to my blog when at home. Hopefully that will be remedied within the next day or so.

We Don't Like Ike


With Gustav still fresh in our memories, all eyes are now on Hurricane Ike, which is forecast to go just south of Florida - perhaps across the Keys - and then curve north. Right now, the projections are for it to curve well to the east of New Orleans, but we are very much in the cone of possibility at this point. One of the things I noticed from the forecast models is that one of the models show it taking a straight line towards the mouth of the Mississippi river from the southeast.

The odds are we'll be fine, but we do need to pay attention to this storm, which is forecast to be a Category 4 as it reaches the gulf. It looks like it will be next Tuesday or Wednesday when we will know something more definite about where it will make landfall.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Gustav Update #9

So why wasn't Gustav the "Mother of all Storms" as Mayor Nagin predicted? I did a little research yesterday, and here is what I came up with:

To understand what happened (or more accurately, what didn't happen), you first need to understand how hurricanes work. Tropical storms and hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise. They get their fuel from the left side of the storm, which the engine (the "eye") pulls in and swings it around the bottom and to the right. The reason the upper-right (northeast) quadrant is the strongest is because this is where the outflow meets the inflow. Centrifugal force comes into play, too. As the storm gets stronger, it becomes easier to "fling" the moisture out at this point.

Meteorologists disagree somewhat on how storms grow in size. Obviously, it has to do with available fuel, but what makes one storm a compact 100 mile in diameter category 4 versus a monster like Katrina? The majority seem to agree it has to do with how high the storm's clouds go - how tall it is. But here is where they seem to disagree a bit. Some think that compact storms have taller clouds because the fuel goes up and swirls around the eye. Others think wider storms have taller clouds because there is nowhere for the fuel to go because it is constrained by the outward bands.

Whatever the reason, they seem to agree that Gustav didn't become the monster it was supposed to because of wind sheer in the upper atmosphere on the left side of the storm that was present as the storm emerged from Cuba. Although it was over the Loop Current (which provides plenty of fuel), this wind sheer essentially acted like a hair dryer, evaporating the moisture before it could be sucked around the eye and used for fuel. Once it got north of the Loop Current, it encountered a deep pocket of cooler water which further inhibited intensification.

Meteorologists are also conflicted as to why the storm started moving faster as it got north of Cuba. The theory that makes the most sense to me is that the lack of fuel essentially made the storm lighter. With less weight to carry, it was able to move faster. Faster moving storms are also less capable of gathering strength. It was able to maintain some of its strength because the shallow waters near the coast were warmer, and its trajectory allowed it to gather a lot of fuel as the eye remained over water a lot longer than it would have if the storm was traveling straight north.

Whatever the reason, we are grateful to Mother Nature for all it did to prevent Gustav from being far worse than it could have been.

New Orleans City Update
Apparently, garbage services resume tomorrow, and SDT already has the French Quarter cleaned up. Since they have electricity (and Coop's has air conditioning) we may be spending a lot of time there.

A quick check of the traffic sites shows no major slow downs in the New Orleans area. Hopefully, anyone within a couple of hours either left yesterday or is leaving this AM. If we are lucky, maybe we won't encounter anything worse than something like morning rush hour traffic.

People


As I mentioned in an early post, Jeff "Coop" Cooperman, Laura Roe, Barry Franklin, Jason Palmer, and a few others rode out the storm in New Orleans. We heard from Coop last night. Coop's Place is open and doing gangbuster business, just like it did after Katrina. Sysco is even delivering food and supplies already.

Jeff Underwood also rode out the storm. Since Katrina, Jeff has purchased Buffa's on Esplanade Avenue just across from the French Quarter. Buffa's is open as well an doing great business.

Joe Fontana evacuated to Memphis and is heading back today.

Glenn Cozzi rode out the storm in the French Quarter and said his lights didn't even flicker. The news is not so good for us, according to Glenn. He drove by our house this AM and checked things out (he has a set of keys). He said everything is fine - no damage - but we don't have power. Hopefully it will be on by the time we get home tonight. If not, he said we can use his generator.

Going Home


The troops here are busy packing and cleaning. I told them to unleash their inner Thing 1 and Thing 2 and make this place cleaner/better than how we found it.
5E2F258C-996D-49EB-BA2E-5BBE3FE5E458.jpg

Lesley Weakley has been an amazing/fantastic/wonderful hostess and we all hope we are welcome here again should it be required to evacuate again.

Since we pretty much ate all the food we brought or bought, we are going to head out for breakfast in a little bit so Fay can get her iHop fix before we hit the road. We hope to be on the road sometime between noon and 2 PM.

The lack of power obviously means a lack of Internet when we get back. I will try to post through email on my iPhone, but the best way to get short updates will be to follow me on Twitter.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Gustav Update #8

Although New Orleans is still under a mandatory evacuation order until 12:01 AM Thursday (at which time it becomes a voluntary evacuation), the checkpoints have been removed, and people are being allowed back. We are going to leave tomorrow, however, simply because the thought of spending another 10-12 hours in a constant stream of traffic that rivals the worst Los Angeles traffic jam you have ever been in just doesn't appeal to us.

There is an interesting article that appeared for awhile on www.nola.com (which is the New Orleans' Time-Picayune newspaper's e-news site) entitled "Next time, we're not leaving." The article was taken down shortly after it was posted, but someone put it up anyway.

In the article, the author pretty much accuses Nagin and other government officials of lying about the potential severity of the storm. In particular, it calls Nagin to task for calling Gustav "the mother of all storms" when it was still 900 miles away. I can't agree with everything he says. For one thing, I'd much rather the government err on the side of caution, rather than even implicitly encourage people to stay, and then have really bad things happen.

The one thing I do agree with, however, is that something has to be done about the speed at which people can evacuate, as well as the availability of gas, food, water, and restroom facilities along the evacuation route. I may err on the side of caution again just to see if they learned any lessons from this evacuation, but if we have a similar experience, it might be hard to convince me to leave for anything less than a Cat 4 in the future.

We are all more than ready to return to our homes, but we also all agree that waiting another day may make both the travel experience and the available resources in New Orleans better. In the mean time, all eyes are on Tropical Storm Ike. The various forecast models are all over the place, but this also has the potential to enter the Gulf, and it is on a similar track to that taken by Gustav.

I won't post tonight unless there is new significant information to write about, but I will post again tomorrow before we hit the road.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Gustav Update #7

Well, Mayor Nagin says we can come back on Thursday. They are doing a staged re-entry, called "Tiers." This is different from Katrina, where they allowed people back based on zip code. "Tier 1" are government officials and contractors, as well as anyone affiliated with the health care system. They were allowed back in today.

"Tiers 2 & 3" are people who own businesses and need to check on inventory in order to get their shops up and running again. They will be allowed back tomorrow. Everyone else is allowed to come back on Thursday.

Nagin said he wished he had a few more days before having to open the city. I am sure he is under quite a bit of pressure, as at some point, the federal government would have to start handing out subsidies again, like they did for Katrina. He also said that anyone "in a fragile state" or with special needs should not come back yet. Further, he said that anyone that does come back will "be on their own for a few days."

This could mean we won't have electricity for a while, although I did talk to Barry Franklin today, who stayed and said the French Quarter, Uptown, and the Bywater all had power. (That doesn't mean we have power at our house, btw. I have been trying to call, hoping my answering machine will kick in, but so far all I get is a phone company message about trouble with the system.)

Right now, our plan is to leave early afternoon Thursday (as early as we can get these late night bartenders to move). We are going to stop for dinner at Lambert's Cafe in Foley, AL, which is about 3.5 hours from Dothan. From there we will probably stop at a grocery to get some food and head on in. I'll post tomorrow with any more details I find out.

I did hear from Steve Edwards. He and his family are heading up to his mother-in-law's house in Chicago for a couple of days. Depending on what we find out when we get back to New Orleans, they are planning on coming back on Saturday.

Gustav Update #6

It does indeed look like New Orleans actually did dodge a bullet this time. Storm damage is extensive, but not as devastating (at least for New Orleans) as it was with Katrina. Entergy estimates a minimum of 850,000 customers are without power. More important, however, is that New Orleans and Baton Rouge have been cut off from the national grid. They are essentially an island when it comes to electricity. The only power being provided in the region is that which is being produced locally at the various plants.

All of the roads leading into New Orleans are being heavily guarded to prevent anyone from getting into the city. The earliest anyone can possibly get in would be Thursday. Even then, there might not be electricity for several days.

The evacuation for Gustav represented the largest in US history. It is estimated 2 million people, including 1.1 million from the New Orleans metropolitan area (which includes communities on the north shore of lake Ponchartrain) evacuated. Not counting "first responders" (local police, firefighters, and National Guard) it is estimated there are less than 10,000 people in the city of New Orleans.

I heard from our friend Keith Davis in Hammond. Their house survived with no major damage.

Today's menu includes the rest of the meat "rescued" from The Joint, as well as Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. We'd rather be home, but we don't need to be miserable.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Gustav Update #5

So far, it looks like Gustav's bark was much worse than its bite, at least as far as New Orleans was concerned. I heard from Coop about 5PM CDT. The power is back on in the quarter and they are opening up for the evening to serve anyone who want to eat. In addition to Coop, Barry Franklin, Laura Roe, Jason Palmer, and a couple of other employees road out the storm in New Orleans and are there to keep the place open.

The Weather Channel and CNN are reporting that winds are down to a sustained 16 mph. It looks like there is one more major band of storms that will be going through later tonight. The biggest concern with this set of storms will be the possibility of tornados.

We continue to keep a wary eye on things, however. Mayor Nagin reports that the sewer system is not functioning. The thought of 300,000 people who can't flush coming back into the city doesn't excite me in the least. We also are mindful of the fact that it looked like New Orleans escaped the worst of Katrina until well after the storm had left the area. In fact, by 10:23 AM on 8/29/05 I was already writing about how New Orleans had dodged another bullet. It wasn't until the morning of the 30th that we started seeing the extent of the damage. So we are very much in a wait and see mode here.

Everyone is getting along great. It is a little like The Big Chill, with 15 people staying in a pretty big house, except no one died (well, except for Nigel the cat). Everyone is anxious to get home, but understands this is part and parcel of life in New Orleans, and everyone is happy to chip in to make this as fun as possible under the circumstances.

Assuming everything checks out tomorrow, we hope to be on the road home as soon as Wednesday or perhaps Thursday. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Gustav Update #4

As I am writing this, Gustav has just made landfall near Cocodrie, LA. It is a category 3 storm. Hurricane strength winds are starting to pummel New Orleans. This storm is different from Katrina. Katrina's eye went east of the city by about 40-50 miles, so the city was spared the worst winds in the Northeast quadrant. Gustav puts that quadrant right over the city.

The levees on the west side of the Industrial Canal (the one that obliterated the Lower Ninth ward) have overtopped, and perhaps breached. Water is flowing into the city in this location like a river. Be prepared to see a flurry of conspiracy theories about this. Those of you who followed by web site after Katrina might remember that I questioned how the feds chose to spend their money in fixing the levees on the Industrial Canal after Katrina. Here's what I had to say in Update #74 on May 6, 2006:

Maybe it's just me, but since the Lower Ninth was prettty much decimated already, wouldn't it have made more sense to put in some temporary protection over there and shore up the part that protects what wasn't so badly damaged?


Here's the deal: they built this massive flood wall on the east side of the Industrial canal, which protects a largely unpopulated lower ninth ward. While they did some shoring up, the west side of the canal did not receive the same kind of attention as the east side. This is pure physics, people. The east flood wall is stronger and higher and the water needs somewhere to go. It seems obvious to me that the west wall is going to give with any kind of storm surge. Since the storm is literally pushing water against this wall, overtopping or a breach is almost inevitable. Seems like the powers that be are using mother nature for urban renewal.

I understand Shell Beach, where Coop had his boat before Katrina, is experiencing a 10 foot storm surge right now. Coop pulled his boat up to his house before the storm. CNN is also reporting that the Mississippi River is running in reverse, at least on the surface, at New Orleans. We also know the power is out throughout the city.

Our Trip


We left New Orleans about 3 PM yesterday (Sunday, 8/31/08). Our caravan this time included Janis and myself, Cary and Andrea, Adam, Jarret, and Coop's bartender (and good friend) Fay Sanchez in our van, and Juli Green, her boyfriend Mikey Dressler, and Allan Fickling following us with four cats in Juli's car. Of all the wonderful, generous choices we had for places to go and people with whom to stay, we narrowed it down to two: The Chili House in Meridian, MS (owned by some Coop's out of town regulars), or Dothan, AL where the mother-in-law of Fernanda Weakly, who used to work for me at MacSpeech. Availability of gas was also a consideration. Although I topped off the tank on Saturday, we had done a lot of running around helping others prepare, so we were down to about 3/4 of a tank, with no more gas available in New Orleans. The plan was to head northeast on I-59 into Mississippi rather than straight east on I-10, which runs along the coast. This would be safer as the outer bands started coming in, and would also provide more choices for gas.

We thought we had it in the bag. There was hardly anyone on I-10. We went 70 miles per hour all the way through the city, across the twin spans, past Slidell, and onto I-59. At the I-10/I-59 split traffic was forced northward onto I-59, so we couldn't have gone east on I-10 if we wanted to. For the first 6 or 7 miles we were able to continue traveling 70 mph. Then we hit the evacuation traffic. Contraflow started just south of the Louisiana/Mississippi state line. With traffic at pretty much a standstill on the northbound lanes, we cheated and crossed over to the southbound lanes (which were now traveling northbound). We weren't the only ones. We were going 70 mph again for a about 6 miles, then back to a dead standstill. The next 24 miles we averaged 5-6 miles per hour. The exits were blocked. No one could exit if they wanted to. It didn't matter, however, as all the gas stations along this part of I-59 had run out of gas hours before.

Just south of Poplarville the traffic in the southbound lanes (including us) were shifted back to the northbound lanes. The shift over process took a little over an hour over a two mile distance. Traffic started moving a little faster, but was still slow because everyone else who was running out of gas was exiting at Poplarville, which was also the first exit in Mississippi at which cars were allowed to exit. Thank God (and Steve Jobs) for iPhones! we already knew there was no gas in Poplarville. We had information that there was gas in Lumberton, so we exited at exit 35. At this point we had less than 40 miles to go until empty, and Juli's car was down to less than a quarter of a tank. The gas station at the exit was closed, so we pulled into a parking lot to stretch, allow those who smoke to do so, and regroup. While we were there, someone driving a Mississippi Department of Transportation truck pulled in and asked if we needed any help. We asked about gas stations and he told us about several within a short distance. We were able to fill up the cars, get some refreshments, and take a badly needed bathroom break. We had been on the road over 6 hours to go a distance that normally would have taken a little over an hour. Along the way, however, we encountered our first casualty: Mikey's cat Nigel died while we were in the evacuation standstill. Nigel was 19 years old. Mikey and July buried him underneath a flag pole in Lumberton.

While we were in Lumberton a police officer told us a tornado had touched down in the French Quarter. As you can imagine, this scared us. We were able to get through to Coop at Coop's Place, who told us a tornado in fact had NOT touched down. It turned out that funnel clouds were sighted and there was a tornado warning, but no touch down. Back on the road.

The plan was to drive to Laurel, MS and then decide whether we were going to keep going northeast or cut to the east to head to Dothan. While on the road we heard from Coop's regulars Kevin and Bob, who were at a standstill over 20 miles south of Meridian. As we continued north (we were now traveling at about 60 mph), we listened to WWL radio out of New Orleans and learned the backup near Meridian was getting worse. One person called in to report the backup was now just north of Laurel, which is 60 miles southwest of Meridian. No one had the stomach for sitting in bumper to bumper traffic again, so we decided to cut east just south of Hattiesburg, MS on US 98. At this point, we were 300 miles from Dothan, AL — about the same distance as if we had left directly from New Orleans. We had no choice. The only place to get gas was north, not east.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing. We took US 98 to north of Mobile, AL, where we stopped to get a bite to eat at a Waffle House. The stress was running pretty high at this point, so I sat down with a couple of people and talked them down a bit. It was only a minor issue, but I didn't want it escalating as we still had 3 hours to go. At this point it was after midnight, and around 1AM when we finally got on the road again. We took I-65 northeast to US 84, where we gassed up, and then headed pretty much due east to Dothan. There was hardly any traffic on these roads from the time we left I-59 near Hattiesburg - something for which I was very thankful. When we did pass a car, it almost always had Louisiana plates. While listening to WWL radio we found out it took someone 5 hours to get from Hattiesburg to Meridian. The problem was apparently people who got tired of gridlock on I-55 and took US 98, US 84, and I-20 east to I-59. It turns out that although we had to go a further distance, we arrived in Dothan about the same time we would have arrived in Meridian. We pulled in at around 4AM - 13 hours after we left. This trip would normally have taken about 6 hours (and New Orleans to Meridian is only about 2.5 hours!).

People


I don't have too much information on people yet, but here is what I do know:

  • Fay Sanchez, Allan Fickling, Juli Green, and Mikey Dressler are with us, of course, as are our kids and Andrea.

  • Kevin and Bob made it past Meridian, although I don't know where they ended up.

  • Kattai and Kathleen left on Friday. I can't remember where (Fay knows), but they are safe.

  • Jaclyn McCabe is staying at a friend's house in Memphis.
  • Steve Edwards and his family made it to Blytheville, AK. They left about 5 AM and pulled into Blytheville around 8:30 PM. Steve said it took over 4 hours to get from his home to the I-10/I-55 split.

  • Coop, Laura Roe, Barry Franklin, and Jason Palmer chose to ride out the storm at Coop's Place.

  • Mike and Nichole Moses left early and made it to Gatlinburg, TN.



What's Next


Well, it is certainly too early to make any decisions about what we are going to do. The storm has to completely pass from the New Orleans area and the local authorities need to assess the damage. We will hunker down here until at least Thursday, unless they say we can come back sooner. Katrina taught us how to be nomads, if necessary, so we will try not to be too much of a burden on any one of our friends for too long. Hopefully it won't come to that.

But for the immediate future, well, it is Labor Day and what better thing to do than BBQ? Both Allan and Mikey work at The Joint, which has some of the best BBQ ribs anywhere. They brought a bunch of ribs and some other goodies. Janis and I also brought fixins' for Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. We can't offer much, but we do make sure our hosts eat well.

Get Faster Updates
Do you know about Twitter? This is a neat little thing that allows its users to "micro-blog" what they are doing. There is a limit of 140 characters and there are a variety of programs for the iPhone that allow you to add pictures, GPS location, etc. Last night, I posted to Twitter as we were traveling (don't worry, I didn't text and drive - we were either stopped or someone typed for me). You can sign up for a free account at http://twitter.com/home. Once you have done that you can follow my posts at http://twitter.com/thechuck. You can also follow my Twitter posts on my Facebook page.

I'll try to update what I find out about people tonight, as well as anything else I find out that you may not be able to hear about on the news networks or weather channel.